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Major Leagues jump the gun
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Instant replay came to major league baseball (oops, that’s Major League Baseball — wouldn’t want to be sued, would we?) Thursday, and no matter which side of the fence you come down on, whether or not that’s a good thing, the lords of baseball managed to screw something up again.
How?
Here’s how. There were eight games scheduled in MLB yesterday, four in each league. Yet instant replay was going to be used at only three venues — Wrigley Field, Angel Stadium and McAfee Coliseum (quick, where is McAfee Coliseum?). Presumably, that’s to get any kinks worked out of the system. Video will be used at the rest of the stadiums starting today.
In the great scope of things, this isn’t that big. But when last we looked, the Phillies and Cubs, who play at Wrigley Field, the Twins (who play Oakland at — you guessed it, McAfee Coliseum) and the Angels and Rangers, who play at Angel Stadium, are all still in contention for division and/or wild card spots. That means five teams in the heat of pennant races could have games decided based on untested technology, while six other teams (the Red Sox, Yankees, Rays, Blue Jays, Marlins and Dodgers) still in contention, will play under a different set of rules.
Yes, it’s a bit of a stretch to think that any one of those teams might lose out on a playoff spot due to the likelihood of a call or no-call based on instant replay for one day, but it could happen, and that’s the problem.
Major League Baseball wants to be seen as one organization, like the NFL, NBA and NHL, rather than as two separate leagues, but continues to let its teams play under different sets of rules.
The most egregious example, of course, is the designated hitter. That abomination has now been used in the American League for 35 years, and if you don’t think it has that big an effect, just compare box scores in the two leagues.
Of the nine box scores printed in Thursday’s News-Item, the average NL game used 25.8 players, and the average number of players used in AL games was 20.2. Take any day of the season, and those numbers will hold, give or take a few tenths to a player.
Why?
Because National League managers actually have to make tough decisions, or at least the single toughest strategic decision in any game — whether or not to lift a pitcher for a pinch-hitter. With the DH, that decision hardly ever comes into play.
Think it isn’t two different games? If you watched the Phillies’ 8-7, 13-inning comeback win over their archrivals, the New York Mets, the other night, it was laid out for you.
Both teams were down to their last relief pitcher at the end. The Mets had only one position player left and the Phillies none. Two Phillies starting pitchers, Cole Hamels and Brett Myers, had to be used as pinch-hitters, and the Phillies’ scheduled starter for the next game, Kyle Kendrick, was warming up in the bullpen and likely would have been used had the game gone longer.
By that time, the game, which was meaningful enough, since the rivals are battling for the NL East lead, was taking on much more meaning, because both teams were looking at the possibility of having to juggle their starting rotations for their following series.
One reason the AL has had an advantage in interleague games is because its bullpens are fresher for those games, because AL relievers don’t get used as much. Two sets of rules for two leagues, yet they play each other in games that affect pennant races in both leagues.
Now look at the standings. The American League has 14 teams, the National League has 16. It used to be 15 each, but for some reason never adequately explained, the lords of baseball decided to move the Milwaukee Brewers to the National League a few years back.
Now an American League team has a 1 in 3.5 chance of making the playoffs, and a National League team has a 1 in 4 chance. That’s a minor difference, unless of course you’re on an NL team that just misses out, and you’re a marginal player who could really use the postseason cash, even in this age of millionaire players.
One division, the AL West, has four teams. One, the NL Central, has six. That means an AL West team has a 25-percent change of winning its division, and an NL Central team has only a 16.7-percent chance. In gambling terms, that’s a pretty significant difference. Curiously, the players union reps from the NL Central teams don’t seem to understand that the odds aren’t even.
Baseball continually makes these kinds of willy-nilly, where’d-they-come-up-with-that, decisions.
Let’s make baseball accessible to rest of the world. Okay, we’ll open the season in Japan, at a time of day when no one in America will watch. Then, after the two teams play two regular season games a week before anyone else, we’ll bring them back to the states to play — exhibition games. That’s what happened to the Red Sox and A’s this year.
Or let’s give the World Series home-field advantage to the team from the league that wins the All-Star Game (an exhibition game).
Or we have too many teams, so let’s subtract two, one of which, the Minnesota Twins, has been one of the most stable franchises of the past two decades (and in a small market, no less).
It makes you wonder if Commissioner Bud Selig and his minions sometimes wake up in the morning and put their shoes on the wrong feet.
(Souders is a sports writer)
How?
Here’s how. There were eight games scheduled in MLB yesterday, four in each league. Yet instant replay was going to be used at only three venues — Wrigley Field, Angel Stadium and McAfee Coliseum (quick, where is McAfee Coliseum?). Presumably, that’s to get any kinks worked out of the system. Video will be used at the rest of the stadiums starting today.
In the great scope of things, this isn’t that big. But when last we looked, the Phillies and Cubs, who play at Wrigley Field, the Twins (who play Oakland at — you guessed it, McAfee Coliseum) and the Angels and Rangers, who play at Angel Stadium, are all still in contention for division and/or wild card spots. That means five teams in the heat of pennant races could have games decided based on untested technology, while six other teams (the Red Sox, Yankees, Rays, Blue Jays, Marlins and Dodgers) still in contention, will play under a different set of rules.
Yes, it’s a bit of a stretch to think that any one of those teams might lose out on a playoff spot due to the likelihood of a call or no-call based on instant replay for one day, but it could happen, and that’s the problem.
Major League Baseball wants to be seen as one organization, like the NFL, NBA and NHL, rather than as two separate leagues, but continues to let its teams play under different sets of rules.
The most egregious example, of course, is the designated hitter. That abomination has now been used in the American League for 35 years, and if you don’t think it has that big an effect, just compare box scores in the two leagues.
Of the nine box scores printed in Thursday’s News-Item, the average NL game used 25.8 players, and the average number of players used in AL games was 20.2. Take any day of the season, and those numbers will hold, give or take a few tenths to a player.
Why?
Because National League managers actually have to make tough decisions, or at least the single toughest strategic decision in any game — whether or not to lift a pitcher for a pinch-hitter. With the DH, that decision hardly ever comes into play.
Think it isn’t two different games? If you watched the Phillies’ 8-7, 13-inning comeback win over their archrivals, the New York Mets, the other night, it was laid out for you.
Both teams were down to their last relief pitcher at the end. The Mets had only one position player left and the Phillies none. Two Phillies starting pitchers, Cole Hamels and Brett Myers, had to be used as pinch-hitters, and the Phillies’ scheduled starter for the next game, Kyle Kendrick, was warming up in the bullpen and likely would have been used had the game gone longer.
By that time, the game, which was meaningful enough, since the rivals are battling for the NL East lead, was taking on much more meaning, because both teams were looking at the possibility of having to juggle their starting rotations for their following series.
One reason the AL has had an advantage in interleague games is because its bullpens are fresher for those games, because AL relievers don’t get used as much. Two sets of rules for two leagues, yet they play each other in games that affect pennant races in both leagues.
Now look at the standings. The American League has 14 teams, the National League has 16. It used to be 15 each, but for some reason never adequately explained, the lords of baseball decided to move the Milwaukee Brewers to the National League a few years back.
Now an American League team has a 1 in 3.5 chance of making the playoffs, and a National League team has a 1 in 4 chance. That’s a minor difference, unless of course you’re on an NL team that just misses out, and you’re a marginal player who could really use the postseason cash, even in this age of millionaire players.
One division, the AL West, has four teams. One, the NL Central, has six. That means an AL West team has a 25-percent change of winning its division, and an NL Central team has only a 16.7-percent chance. In gambling terms, that’s a pretty significant difference. Curiously, the players union reps from the NL Central teams don’t seem to understand that the odds aren’t even.
Baseball continually makes these kinds of willy-nilly, where’d-they-come-up-with-that, decisions.
Let’s make baseball accessible to rest of the world. Okay, we’ll open the season in Japan, at a time of day when no one in America will watch. Then, after the two teams play two regular season games a week before anyone else, we’ll bring them back to the states to play — exhibition games. That’s what happened to the Red Sox and A’s this year.
Or let’s give the World Series home-field advantage to the team from the league that wins the All-Star Game (an exhibition game).
Or we have too many teams, so let’s subtract two, one of which, the Minnesota Twins, has been one of the most stable franchises of the past two decades (and in a small market, no less).
It makes you wonder if Commissioner Bud Selig and his minions sometimes wake up in the morning and put their shoes on the wrong feet.
(Souders is a sports writer)
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